Chapter 13 Past and Present Life and the Causation

The Essence of Happiness and True Freedom

2.2-The.Essence.of.Happiness.and.True.Freedom Chapter13 Past Present Life

In chapter 8, we spoke about the law of correlation, also known as the law of causality. Now let’s inquire into it.

The law of causality is the axiom in the theoretical basis of all science and philosophy. Without the law of causality, all scientific theorems and philosophical theories cannot be established.

The law of causality indicates that any phenomenon or situation must have its cause, "there is a proper sequence of foundation and end results in everything", which means all results and phenomena are the productions of cause and effect.

The law of correlation has these three basic characteristics:
1) The effect is brought by the cause.
2) Reasonableness.
3) Existence is based on emptiness.

The universe follows these three basic principles; nothing can avoid the creation and destruction, this law, take out which is about arising and ceasing of all due to cause and condition.

The law of causality abides by the laws of the material world, as well as the emotional realm.

The free will of human beings will inevitably generate "karma" during the process of creation. As an effect, all human thoughts and behaviours will “leave traces”, forming habits that carry action and reaction. The repetition of creation will form habitual karmic action and accumulate an inertia of energy.

Free will creates habitual karma, which in turn affects the free will. This force that counteracts free will is called the karma.

Actually, the law of causality is always there throughout the action of free will. So，the cause is the force of karmic cause, or the karmic cause, in a simpler name; The effect is the force of karmic effect, or karmic effect, in a simpler name; The destiny is the force of karmic destiny, or karmic destiny in a simpler name. When exercising free will, karmic cause will affect the act of free will, and create karmic effect. Karmic effect will turn into a new karmic cause, that is why the law of causality is not the same as fatalism or determinism.

Logical thinkers would understand that if there is a cause and effect, there must be reincarnation.

Why?

Some wicked people do evils all their lives, and they die without receiving any bad retribution in this lifetime; some people perform good deeds all their lives, and they die without receiving any good mercies. If there is no after life, no punishment after the deaths, and the evils escape the penalties but the kind ones have not been shown mercies, then there is no law of causality established, and the virtuous manners and moral actions are meaningless to people.

In reality , practising eveils will often bring more profits than living the rightous path. So why do people insist on justifying themselves? Some people are immoral and they do things that go against their conscience, for profit purpose, and they still live happily and abundantly. If their actions ultimately bring no consequences, doesn’t it make more sense to perform evil?

Therefore, only when immoral behaviors bring retribution, and good deeds are rewarded, then justice is served, and we have a reason to adhere to morality.

The four potential quotients, the hobbies, and skills, the temperament and personality of a person all differ from their parents. They are not inherited from parents nor arranged by God. The innate karma in this life derives from past karma in a previous life.

Raised by the same parents, under the same family environment, but the brothers and sisters in the same family exhibit different personalities: some are kind, some are indifferent; some are considerate, some are selfish; some are strong, some are cowardly; some are open, some are conservative... These personalities begin to manifest in childhood, before formal education takes place. The same is true in regards to hobbies, behavior

Some people are born with low intelligence, some people are born geniuses; some people exhibit kindness since young, some people are selfish; some people are gentle and meek while others are stubborn and irritable... The karmic effects in this lifetime originated from the karmic causes of the past life.

Many are born with memories of past lives; in fact vast varieties of examples are available about this topic. So to speak, without the past life, the law of causality will not exist.

On top of that, a more convincing example is about the identical twins, who share the same genes, look exactly the same, have the same parents, live the same living environment, wear the same clothes, receive the same education. However when they grow older, from 3 to 7 years of age , their differences in personalities and hobbies, talents and potentials, IQs and EQs, spiritual and moral quotients will emerge. Of course, those with low potential of emotional quotient and spiritual intelligence quotient will not be observed during a young age; however, those with high potential of emotional and spiritual quotient will be obvious during youth.

The assertion that there is no past life and no future life has no scientific basis, and no scientist would dare to say that this claim can be proven by experimentation. Any claim that has not been proved by experiments and practice is simply conjecture! How could you blindly give credence to such an assertion?

Someone may ask: "If there is a past life, then why can't I remember it?" Just quietly think of any events that took place before you turned 6, as an ordinary person you can’t even recall any; how about occurrences that happened in a few years back, how many can you remember?So let alone past life. Could something not be remembered be considered as not happening?

It is normal for a person to sleep in the mother's womb for nine and a half months, completely forgetting what happened in the previous life. There are very few people who could remember past lives, nevertheless after a few years, the memories gradually fade away. Such cases have been recorded and reported from ancient times to the present. Western scientific researchers have also confirmed the existence of the soul after death through hypnosis and research on people who died and resurrected (near-dead) in a short period of time after deaths occur.

Of course, to prove reincarnation, there are generally two possibilities:

The first is to practice yoga, meditation or deep meditation, to a certain extent, the phenomena of life after death are visible and verifiable. Countless of practitioners have confirmed this.

The second is the scientific inventions of more sophisticated instruments that could measure the soul after death happens.

Everything has a cause and effect. As vast as the birth of the Milky Way, or as minor as being bitten by a mosquito, there are causes and effects in them. Nothing happens for no reason.

From the cause to the effect, the effect also forms the cause, the cause and the effect, the effect and the cause, there is no end to it; like a circular chain, the links are connected one after another, no possibility of a break. Due to the continuity and consistency of cause and effect, there must be past, present, and future reincarnations that are affected by the cause and effect.

The law of causality is the natural law of the universe and life; nothing happens coincidentally and without the order. Our encounters and our ups and downs in lives, the people we meet, the experiences we go through, they do not simply happen accidentally or by chance.

If we really have the spirit of science in us, then we should examine everything objectively, rather than from our perspective only, then we will definitely believe that there is a law of cause and effect in the universe. And if we believe in the cause and effect, we must also believe in the reincarnation. Most people with basic educational background would be able to understand this truth if they observe and think comprehensively regarding this matter.

Many refuse to believe in the truths as the arrogance has deeply rooted in them. They are unwilling to believe about the existence of wise men in this world, who have the wisdom and abilities far beyond ordinary people. At the same time, many people self-righteously believe that ancient saints have been deified and as a consequence, later generations just blindly idol and worship them. This concept is deeply ingrained in them and difficult to change. These various doubts and prejudices will hinder them from learning with an open and humble heart, and thus create a hurdle for acquiring wisdom from the wise.

Every ordinary person, drawn into this world by one’s own good and bad karma; except that death is certain, they know nothing about the future. Subconsciously, they are restless and fearful. Those who do not believe in reincarnation do not realise the psychological reasons behind it and won’t think further about it. When one is alone and has nothing much to do, this inexplicable irritability, fear and loneliness often invade him. That person does not dare to face themselves, so they will flee into the crowd and spend time with entertainment such as chatting, gaming, dancing or immersing in an act to forget the psychological pain. In this modern era, the most common pastimes are watching TV and scrolling on the cellphone.

The unbelievers of existence of soul after death, subconsciously, think that human beings are just highly complex electrochemical machines that are not miraculous in anyway. In their presumption, there is nothing left after the death occurs, so when they are alive, they enjoy themselves to the fullest with no regrets.

The corrupted officials, thieves, and murderers think that as long as they are not caught alive, they don't have to bear any consequences; and once dead, nothing attached, so to say. In fact, greed, belief in faith, and luck are also embodied in ordinary people who do not actually break any laws. As soon as the opportunity presents itself, the attitudes of greed, faith, and luck can get out of hand.

Human society, from the European Renaissance, with the rise of humanism, and the beginning of systematic and comprehensive development of natural science, to the period of the Industrial Revolution (late 18th century) ，through the ending period of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the western society had completely emerged in the development of science, intoxicated by the progress of technology, and forgotten the concept of cause and effect and the karma of good and evil. We have also forgotten about the divine.

Under the influence of this phenomenon, two world wars broke out and the earth became "world of animals".

After the World War II, the wounds of human beings were undergoing difficult time period of healings. During the timeframe, almost all countries, regions or nations had no sense of security and mutual trust on each other. They were constantly preparing themselves for the upcoming wars. Cold wars continued for another 10 years or so, wars of arms happened one after another.

The deep spiritual crisis as the result of the total indulgence with technological progress continued to spread throughout the world. Increasingly more perplexing and challenging social problems in Western countries came into the picture.

Today, the ideas of individualism, liberalism, secularism and hedonism have begun to gradually grow and spread, to subtly form our current social atmosphere.

Nowadays, people all over the world have become more materialist, eager for quick successes, improvident, unscrupulous, spiritually empty, in lack of a sense of responsibility and concept of cause and effect. Only a very small number of people are reflecting on material civilization. They are aware of the limitations of science and they understand that neither science nor law can solve the increasingly serious social problems such as drug addictions, violence, mental illnesses, and suicides.